<Begin Segment 5>

LT: So let's talk about you. How many brothers and sisters did you have and where were you in the mix?

SI: Well, we had five brothers, five of us brothers, and two sisters. All the Japanese family had big families like that, that they all had five... very few only had one or two. They all had big families of five or six.

LT: And where were you among the brothers and sisters?

SI: Oh, I was born first, so I was oldest. And then came a year later apiece, I guess.

LT: So what responsibilities did you have as the eldest Imai child?

SI: Well, they decided I guess I had, they would send me to Japan when I was seven years old, and shipped me off to Japan for three years. They thought, well, if they ship me over there, maybe I could continue the farming on the Imai family deal. So they shipped me over there.

LT: So the intent was that you would farm the Imai farm in Japan, in Okayama?

SI: Yeah. But I didn't like too much, so when my uncle came over in '30, just before '30, he says, "You want to go back?" I said, "Sure do." I didn't like the, at that time, Japan was always, they were already starting war with China and all that stuff, and I didn't like their, the way they were trying to rule the world over there.

LT: Can you be more specific about what it was that you didn't like?

SI: Well, they were, you know, just trying to teach marching and things like that, the soldiers do. Of course, we didn't have no baseball game like modern people. But they...

LT: What... in school then, what was school like in Japan where they were teaching you about Japanese and marching?

SI: Well, they were always saying that they believed in the emperor more than God, I guess. So they were saying for the country, or for the emperor, they idolized emperor, I guess, those days. And then they were always saying you do things for the country by sacrificing yourself.

LT: Okay. And how did they teach you that? Did they teach you by reading or by actions? How did you as a student --

SI: Lot of reading, yeah, lot of reading. It was kind of a fanatical thing that you had to give up a lot of things just to satisfy the way they were thinking at the time, I guess. Yeah, I didn't think too much about it. That's why I came back. But they were invading China and all over. It was...

[Interruption]

LT: So, Shig, when you were seven years old, you were living in Japan. What do you remember about your Imai family life in Japan?

SI: Well, Grandfather had a... of course, Grandmother was still living there, too, when I went there. But she died while I was still there. But they had a rice field in front of their house, and then they had a little peach orchard up in the hills. They used to even go clear up in the hills, and there was pine trees. They used to pick up those pine needles and bring it all the way home in a big bag and use that as a fuel, 'cause they used to have... well, they had to cook everything with some kind of a fuel, so they used dried pine needs for fuel. And some woods and twigs, anything they could find up there in the hills. They were, they had to have something to cook there, those days.

LT: Was life in, living in Japan similar or a lot different from living in the United States?

SI: Oh, yeah. There was, one time, I don't know if Dad was there or not. But anyway, they had an electric clipper, and instead of on the wooden floor or mat, we were on the dirt floor. And that clipper had a leak and I got a shock out of it. I'll never forget that. [Laughs] Yeah, it was a little different. Then they only had, electricity they had was only, I think, one light bulb was all they had in the house. They didn't have much of a electricity at that time.

LT: So were you the only child living with your family in Japan?

SI: Yeah.

LT: Okay. And so that was the reason that you would be taking care of the farm?

SI: Well, that's what they thought I was going to be doing. [Laughs]

LT: So did you also attend Japanese school?

SI: Oh, yeah.

LT: What was that like? To be an American kid attending Japanese school?

SI: It was... at that time, well, they were, they just... can't remember all that. They didn't have no baseball game or anything like that at that time, so what they did was run races or something like that. Just simple athletic competition.

LT: Was it easy to adjust to school in Japan?

SI: Well, it wasn't too bad, 'cause I knew the speaking part of it was learned by the family when we were living in Dee, yeah. Well, I didn't know much English when I went over there anyway. Only English I knew is kids next door we used to pal around with. We didn't know too much English them days.

LT: Oh, okay. So how did you feel about living in Japan?

SI: What was that again?

LT: How did you feel about living in Japan?

SI: I didn't... after my uncle came over, before I come over, he asked me if I want to go back, and I said, "I sure do." So I came back. That was a good thing, 'cause if I stayed there, probably they would have sent me to the war and I would have probably got killed.

LT: Let me just ask, you were seven years old, so how old would you have been to go to the Japanese military?

SI: Well, you had to be a little older, but then I left when I was ten, so I wouldn't have gone right away. By the time you got out of grade school, they would have probably sent you in the military. I don't know what they were doing then, anyway.

LT: So there was much more military instruction in grade school?

SI: Even grade school they had to learn to march and all that cadence.

LT: Can you talk about the marching exercises that you did at Japanese school?

SI: No, I can't remember those things.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.